Orthodontic appliances are hardware devices that are attached to the teeth of patients, usually by orthodontic practitioners, to move malocclused teeth to better positions to improve the functionality of the teeth and the appearance of the patient. For decades, the most common orthodontic appliances have been formed of orthodontic brackets or bands that are secured to the patient's teeth and which are interconnected by an elastic archwire. Forces are applied by the archwire through the brackets and bands to the teeth to move them toward the desired positions.
The initial shape of the archwire for the treatment of a particular patient is generally prescribed by an orthodontist. Typically, the wire is bent during treatment so that the forces it applies affect the intended movements of the teeth. Intelligent selection of brackets and archwires, or other orthodontic appliance components, by the orthodontist can lead to more efficient treatment and require less manipulation of the appliance by the orthodontist during the course of treatment of the patient.
Systems and methods for providing custom orthodontic appliances are gaining acceptance. These systems and methods take into account individual patient anatomy in designing and manufacturing the custom appliances on a case-by-case basis. Often, custom appliance designs are based on calculated ideal occlusions or treatment plans by or with the aid of computers or computer programs. The computers determine tooth setups or post-treatment tooth positions based on digital data of the tooth shapes and other dental anatomy of the individual patients. The resulting custom appliances, when properly designed and made, can be installed on the teeth of a patient by an orthodontist, usually using custom jigs or other positioning devices or techniques that may be provided with the custom appliances to insure placement of the appliances at predetermined positions on the teeth of the patients so that the appliance functions in the way for which it was designed. Properly installed, such a custom appliances can move the teeth of patients in less time and with a minimum of post-installation manipulation by the orthodontic practitioner. Systems and methods for providing custom orthodontic appliances are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,562 and in PCT Publication No. WO01/47405, both hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The manufacturing of a custom orthodontic appliance may not always be available or might not always be desired, either because of the cost or because the orthodontist might require appliance components or a special prescription that the automated custom appliance manufacturing system might not be equipped to provide. In such cases, manual selection of appliance components is made by the orthodontist from available inventories of standard or otherwise pre-manufactured components, which the orthodontic practitioner assembles to form the appliance to treat the patient.
Selection of pre-manufactured appliance components by an orthodontist usually involves a consideration of the patient's individual anatomy, which can include skeletal and soft tissue anatomy as well as dental anatomy. This consideration leads to a prescribed treatment plan. Traditionally, such determination by the orthodontic practitioner of a treatment plan involves certain estimations, based on the judgment and experience of the practitioner, by manually applying professionally accepted criteria. The orthodontist then typically selects an appliance design that will achieve that treatment plan, which may include picking individual archwires and brackets from inventory or from a catalog that will form an appliance to carry out the prescribed treatment.
Such selection of appliance components is time consuming for the orthodontist. The manual techniques currently employed lack the capability for making the most accurate analysis of the patient's anatomy and the best selection of appliance components. Accordingly, a need exists for improving the selection of pre-manufactured appliance components and for better approximating the features of a custom orthodontic appliance most suitable for treating an orthodontic patient.